The Comics Don't Need No Stinkin' Narrative ColumnThe Men in Tights are Creepy ColumnThe Why Can't Comic Artists Draw Anymore ColumnThe What Comic is Now a Movie ColumnThe I Haven't Read Comics in a Long Time But I Still Like to Give My Two Cents Column

I suppose the struggle to be taken seriously and being noticed is now over and we're in the early jumped the shark stage. We can all just relax and go back to reading and enjoying comics without the chip on the shoulder, even reading them in public without shame at a sidewalk cafe. Get over it already.

Maybe we can even stop calling them "graphic novels" to bury the comic stink.

rockbandcompetition, originally uploaded by sugarfreak. For the next First Friday, we're having our annual fundraiser for Team Atomic & Ride for the Feast, a bike riding event for Moveable Feast, a non profit organization that delivers meals to people living with AIDS and cancer.

This year it's a Rock Band competition! Bring your band, form a band there with other players, or sing and play an instrument by yourself! The winning band wins a $100 Atomic gift card for each member!

There will also be raffles at the event for various awesome goods:

Rock Band for the 360 Xbox, donated by the good people at Harmonix, the creators of Rock Band.

This is the sort of bathroom reading type trivia book that I get addicted to and bring out of the bathroom and carry around with me until I finish. Featuring a who's who of the literary canon, Schnakenberg finds trivia and dirt on many of our most beloved authors (a few surprises even for English majors like me). By the end, you come to the realization that many of our greatest authors were anti-semites (even the Jewish ones), racists, alcoholics or drug addicts, adulterers, had some sort of mental illness, and a sexual perversion. In the long run, it really has no impact on the great works they left behind, but the reading is tawdry and fun. There is also a lot of room for a sequel as there seems to be a lack of great writers born after World War II. Oh, and a bibliography of some sort would lend nicely to the credibility here.